Definition

1. Noun:
   • The national language of the Republic of Malta: "Maltese language" refers to the official and national language spoken by the people of Malta.
   • A Semitic language with Arabic roots and significant Romance influences: It is a language of the Semitic family, primarily derived from Arabic, but it has incorporated a substantial number of loan words from Italian, Spanish, and Norman-French over its history.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The Maltese language has a unique history among European languages.
  • She is studying the Maltese language to better communicate with her relatives in Gozo.
  • The constitution states that the Maltese language is the national language of the country.

Advanced Usage

• "Maltese" as a shorthand: In many contexts, the single word "Maltese" is used to refer to the language.
  • He is fluent in Maltese.
• Used in linguistic studies to describe a language contact phenomenon where a Semitic structure is maintained with heavy lexical borrowing from Romance languages.
  • The Maltese language presents a fascinating case for linguists examining language hybridization.

Variants and Related Words

• Maltese (noun/adjective): The shorter form used to denote the language or anything pertaining to Malta.
  • Maltese is written in a Latin-based script.
• Malti: The endonym, which is the name for the language in Maltese itself.
  • "Malti" is how native speakers refer to their own language.

Synonyms

• Malti: The native term for the Maltese language.
• (There are no direct conceptual synonyms for a specific, unique national language.)

Related Phrases

• (This is a proper noun referring to a specific language; it does not have phrasal verbs.)

Related Idioms

• (This is a proper noun referring to a specific language; it does not have idioms.)

Noun

1. the national language of the Republic of Malta; a Semitic language derived from Arabic but with many loan words from Italian, Spanish, and Norman-French